Redmond, Washington: A global tech outage caused by a software update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike impacted nearly 8.5 million Microsoft devices, according to a blog post from Microsoft on Saturday.
“We currently estimate that CrowdStrike’s update affected 8.5 million Windows devices, or less than one percent of all Windows machines,” the blog stated.
The software update from CrowdStrike, a leading global cybersecurity firm, led to widespread system issues, grounding flights, disrupting broadcasters, and leaving customers without access to essential services such as healthcare and banking.
“While the percentage was small, the broad economic and societal impacts reflect the use of CrowdStrike by enterprises that run many critical services,” Microsoft noted.
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To address the issue, CrowdStrike has assisted in developing a solution to help accelerate a fix for Microsoft’s Azure infrastructure. Microsoft also mentioned that it is collaborating with Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud Platform, sharing information about the outage’s effects across the industry.
The air travel industry is still recovering from the outage, which caused thousands of flight cancellations and left passengers stranded or facing significant delays. Delta Air Lines, one of the most affected airlines, reported that as of 10 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT) on Saturday, over 600 flights had been canceled, with more cancellations expected.
